MRS.  ANNE  HUTCHINSON 


A PAPER  READ  BEFORE  THE 


IRew  Enolani*  ibietonc  (Benealogtcal  Society 


FEBRUARY  6,  1901 


BY 


PROFESSOR  HENRY  LELAND  CHAPMAN 

OF  BOWDOIN  COLLEGE 


0.  OF  ILL.  LIB, 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 
in  2017  with  funding  from 

University  of  Illinois  Urbana-Champaign  Alternates 


https://archive.org/details/mrsannehutchinso00chap_0 


ANNE  HUTCHINSON. 


Francis  Bacon,  in  his  essay  of  Truth,  translates  and 
quotes  with  approval  a saying  of  Lucretius,  which  may, 
not  unfitly,  stand  as  a Prologue,  or  a motto,  to  a paper 
which  undertakes,  after  more  than  two  centuries  and  a 
half,  to  review  the  salient  incidents  in  the  picturesque 
and  painful  career  of  Anne  Hutchinson.  “It  is  a pleas- 
ure/’ says  Lucretius,  “to  stand  upon  the  shore,  and  to 
see  ships  tost  upon  the  sea;  a pleasure  to  stand  in  the 
window  of  a castle,  and  to  see  a battle  and  the  adventures 
thereof  below ; but  no  pleasure  is  comparable  to  the  stand- 
ing upon  the  vantage  ground  of  Truth,  and  to  see  the 
errors,  and  wanderings,  and  mists,  and  tempests  in  the 
vale  below.” 

That  there  were  errors  and  wanderings,  as  well  as 
mists  and  tempests,  in  the  infant  town  of  Boston  during 
the  years  of  which  I am  to  speak,  is  certain ; that  they 
gathered  largely  about  the  person  of  Mistress  Anne 
Hutchinson,  if  they  were  not  wholly  due  to  her  active 
influence  and  her  restless  tongue,  is  equally  certain; 
but  it  is  not  so  certain  that,  even  from  our  present  vant- 
age ground  of  truth,  we  can  justly  estimate  either  the 
provocation  or  the  intdlerance  of  the  prosecution  and 
punishment  which  she  suffered.  It  is  so  difficult  to  enter 
intelligently  into  the  conditions  and  the  differences  of 
a long-past  generation  that  our  judgments  concerning 
them  must  of  necessity  be  cautious  and  tentative. 

Mistress  Hutchinson  made  her  advent  to  Boston  in 
September,  1634.  Her  husband,  William  Hutchinson, 
bore  her  company;  but  while  he  counted  for  as  much 
as  his  wife  — and  perhaps  more  — on  the  passenger 


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MRS.  ANNE  HUTCHINSON 


roll  of  the  ship  Griffin  which  brought  them  from  England, 
History  takes  slight  notice  of  him,  and  accounts  him 
the  weaker  vessel.  Governor  V/inthrop,  whose  judgment 
was  generally  candid  and  true,  speaks  of  him,  in  his 
diary,  as  “a  man  of  a very  mild  temper  and  weak  parts, 
and  wholly  guided  by  his  wife.”  But  it  must  be  remem- 
bered that  Governor  Winthrop  wrote  this  after  he  had 
become  somewhat  familiar  with  the  temper  and  the 
parts  of  Mrs.  Hutchinson,  and  ginger  may  fairly  be 
thought  mild  after  a bell-pepper.  I take  it  that  Governor 
Winthrop’s  is  a comparative,  rather  than  an  absolute, 
estimate  of  Mr.  Hutchinson.  At  any  rate  it  is  certain 
that  he  had  no  sooner  taken  the  “ freeman’s  oath”  and 
thus  become  a legal  member  of  the  colony,  than  he  was 
forthwith  made  a deputy,  or  representative  from  Boston 
to  the  General  Court, — a testimonial  which  we  must 
estimate  by  the  significance  it  had  in  those  days  rather 
than  that  it  has  in  our  own.  Governor  Winthrop  sajrs 
that  he  was  “wholly  guided  by  his  wife,”  which  is,  per- 
haps, after  all,  only  a magisterial  and  unsympathetic 
w^ay  of  saying  that  he  was  loyal  and  devoted  to  her 
through  all  her  conflict  with  the  magistrates  and  the 
ministers.  He  stood  unfalteringly  by  her  side  both 
before  and  after  her  banishment,  and  to  the  messengers 
of  the  church  who  were  sent  to  expostulate  with  him 
on  his  attitude,  he  said  with  a modest  firmness  which 
does  honor  to  his  “mild  temper,”  that  he  was  “more 
nearly  tied  to  his  wife  than  to  the  church ; and  he  thought 
her  to  be  a dear  saint  and  servant  of  God.”  He  had  so 
little  share  in  his  wife’s  controversies  that  there  may  be 
no  occasion  to  refer  to  him  again,  and  it  is  pleasant  to 
take  leave  of  him  with  the  evidence  which  those  words 
contain  of  his  constancy  to  her. 

The  Boston  to  which  Mrs.  Hutchinson  came  in  1634 


MRS.  ANNE  HUTCHINSON 


5 


was  an  unpretentious,  not  to  say  meagre,  little  town, 
giving  no  promise  that  it  could  ever  be  called,  even  in 
jest,  and  by  one  of  its  own  poets,  the  “hub  of  the  uni- 
verse.It  was  less  than  half  its  present  size,  since  the 
greater  part  of  the  Boston  which  we  know  is  built  upon 
land  that  has  been  laboriously  “made.”  Winding  foot- 
paths, which  have  since  petrified  into  so-called  streets, 
connected  the  few  humble  dwellings  with  each  other 
and  with  the  single  church  which,  considering  the  num- 
ber and  length  of  the  services  held  in  it,  was  perhaps  the 
busiest  place  in  the  town.  Religion,  and  religion  in  its 
most  intellectual  and  theological  aspect,  was  the  common 
vocation  of  the  people,  and  they  hurried  through  what 
might  be  called  the  exacting  chores  of  life  in  order  that 
they  might  give  themselves  to  frequent  and  protracted 
seasons  of  worship,  and  religious  instruction,  and  theo- 
logical disputation.  These  things  must  constantly  be 
borne  in  mind,  or  the  career  of  Anne  Hutchinson  becomes 
inexplicable  and  inconceivable. 

The  pastor  of  the  Boston  church  at  the  time  of  Mrs. 
Hutchinson’s  arrival,  and  for  many  years  thereafter, 
was  John  Wilson ; and  his  associate,  who  was  technically 
called  the  “teacher”  of  the  church,  was  John  Cotton. 
Both  of  these  good  men  were  so  intimately  connected 
with  the  unfortunate  strife  which  Mrs.  Hutchinson  inaug- 
urated, that  something  should  be  said  about  them. 

John  Wilson  was  one  of  the  distinguished  company 
that  came  across  the  sea  with  John  Winthrop  in  1630 
and  laid  the  foundations  of  the  Massachusetts  Bay 
Colony.  He  was  a graduate  of  Cambridge  University, 
and  had  been  an  esteemed  preacher  and  pastor  in  Eng- 
land until  he  was  suspended  and  silenced  for  non-con- 
formity. He  united  with  Governor  Winthrop,  Deputy 
Governor  Dudley,  and  Isaac  Johnson  in  forming  the 


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MRS.  ANNE  HUTCHINSON 


Boston  church,  of  which  he  was  almost  immediately 
ordained  “teacher,”  and  two  years  later,  in  1632,  he 
was  chosen  pastor  of  the  church,  and  exercised  that  office 
until  his  death  in  1667.  Through  the  greater  part  of 
his  pastorate,  indeed  through  the  whole  of  it  except 
when  the  church  was  rent  by  the  convulsions  that  arose 
through  the  influence  of  Mrs.  Hutchinson,  he  was  held 
in  universal  respect  and  veneration,  and  such  was  the 
confidence  in  the  power  of  his  faith  that  when  he  was 
drawing  near  to  death  many  persons  of  note  came, — 
some  from  a distance  and  bringing  their  children, — to 
receive  his  dying  benediction.  Cotton  Mather  says  of 
him,  in  his  Magnalia,  “if  the  picture  of  this  good  and 
therein  great  man  were  to  be  exactly  given,  great  zeal 
with  great  love  would  be  the  two  principal  strokes  that, 
joined  with  orthodoxy,  should  make  up  his  portraiture. 
Though  he  was,  like  John,  a son  of  thunder  against 
seducers,  yet  he  was,  like  that  blessed  and  beloved  Apostle, 
also  all  made  up  of  love.” 

John  Cotton,  the  “teacher”  of  the  church,  had  arrived 
in  Boston  in  1633,  just  a year  before  the  coming  of  Mrs. 
Hutchinson.  He  was  a more  prominent  and  picturesque 
figure  in  the  community  than  the  pastor,  Mr.  Wilson, 
and  for  nineteen  years  he  was  the  civil  and  ecclesiastical 
autocrat  of  the  colony, — “the  unmitred  pope,”  as  he  has 
been  called,  “of  a pope-hating  commonwealth.”  He, 
like  Mr.  Wilson,  was  hounded  out  of  England  by  Arch- 
bishop Laud  because  he  was  a Puritan.  He  was  a grad- 
uate of  Cambridge  University,  and  had  been  head  lec- 
turer and  dean  of  Emanuel  College  in  that  University, 
and  subsequently  for  twenty  years  pastor  of  the  great 
church  of  St.  Botolph’s  at  Boston  until  he  was  driven 
out  by  ecclesiastical  persecution.  More  than  one  account 
has  been  given  of  the  sermon  which  signalized  Mr.  Cotton’s 


MRS.  ANNE  HUTCHINSON 


7 


public  espousal  of  the  faith  and  spirit  of  Puritanism,  and 
the  effect  it  produced  upon  his  admirers.  It  was  in,  or 
about,  the  year  1612,  and  in  the  venerable  church  of  St. 
Mary,  in  Cambridge,  that  this  sermon  was  preached. 
It  was  an  interesting  and  memorable  occasion.  The 
ancient  edifice  was  thronged  by  an  eager  congregation 
made  up  chiefly  of  students,  fellows  and  professors  of 
Cambridge,  who  were  drawn  to  the  service  by  the  bril- 
liant reputation  of  the  preacher,  a member  of  their  own 
university,  a fellow  of  Emanuel  College.  He  was  now 
about  twenty-seven  years  old,  and  half  his  life  had  been 
passed  in  the  university.  He  had  made  for  himself  a 
distinguished  name  as  a scholar.  He  had  been  made, 
successively,  catechist,  head-lecturer  and  dean  of  his 
college.  He  was  master  of  the  logic  and  philosophy 
then  in  favor,  which  formed  so  large  a part  of  the  curric- 
ulum of  the  university.  He  was  a Greek  scholar  of 
more  than  usual  erudition,  and  it  is  said  that  he  could 
converse  readily  in  both  Latin  and  Hebrew.  But  his 
special  gift,  that  which  had  filled  St.  Mary’s  church, 
on  the  occasion  of  which  I am  speaking,  with  an  expectant 
audience  of  scholars,  was  the  gift  of  preaching.  His 
sermons,  written  with  the  captivating  art  of  the  rhetori- 
cian, and  pronounced  with  the  charm  and  power  of  the 
finished  orator,  were  wont  to  draw  forth  an  involuntary 
hum  of  approval  and  applause  from  his  delighted  hearers. 
But  while  his  faith  had  been  taking  on  the  form  of  Puri- 
tanism, he  had,  at  the  same  time,  been  growing  dissatis- 
fied with  the  character  of  his  own  preaching.  It  was  too 
showy,  too  superficial,  too  much  adapted  to  set  off  the 
glory  of  the  preacher  rather  than  of  the  Master  whom 
he  served.  Now  he  faced  his  waiting  congregation  with 
a different  and  a deeper  purpose.  His  sermon  was  the 
simple,  heartfelt  utterance  of  Christian  and  evangelistic 


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MRS.  ANNE  HUTCHINSON 


fervor.  His  hearers,  who  had  come  together  to  enjoy 
once  more  their  accustomed  feast  of  wit  and  oratory, 
were  surprised,  disappointed,  disgusted.  No  faintest 
indication  of  applause  greeted  the  sermon  as  it  fell  from 
the  lips  of  the  transformed  preacher.  “They  pulled 
their  shovel-caps  down  over  their  faces,”  says  one  account, 
“folded  their  arms,  and  sat  it  out  sullenly, — amazed  that 
the  promising  John  Cotton  had  turned  lunatic  or  Puritan.” 

When  the  historic  First  church  of  Boston  celebrated 
its  two  hundred  and  fiftieth  anniversary,  among  the 
interesting  exercises  of  the  occasion  was  a poem  by  Dr. 
William  Everett  picturing  the  scene  I have  just  described, 
and  from  it  I quote  a few  lines. 


“Sunday  morning!  Tower  and  steeple,  chime  confusing  sweet  with 
chime, 

Call  all  Cambridge  out  to  worship,  in  the  hot-souled  Stuart  time. 
Through  St.  Mary’s  dark-browed  portal  see  the  motley  gownsmen  press, 
Blue  and  sable,  white  and  scarlet,  passions  varied  as  their  dress. 


“Now  they  settle  on  their  cushions,  waiting  for  the  rich  repast 
That  shall  wake  applause  for  Cotton,  loud  as  when  they  hummed  him 
last. 

Then  as  though  the  sultry  noontide  felt  its  clouds  by  lightning  rent, 
Leaps  the  text,  the  Baptist’s  warning,  one  short,  dreadful  word,  ‘Repent’  ” 
Aye,  “Repent!”  no  gorgeous  fabric,  quaint  conceit  or  wit  is  there. 

Classic  tale  or  strain  poetic,  sweetly  floating  on  the  air; 

But  Jehovah’s  barbed  arrow,  flashing  from  his  servant’s  string, 

Piercing  every  sluggish  conscience  with  its  unrelenting  sting! 


“O’er  the  crowd  the  preacher  gazes  rapt,  as  when  on  Mars’s  height 
Saul  of  Tarsus  looked  unflinching  up  to  Pallas’  temple  white: 

From  the  black  and  scarlet  gownsmen  comes  no  loud  approving  hum; 
Stern  resentment  knits  their  foreheads,  sharp  contrition  holds  them 
dumb. 


MRS.  ANNE  HUTCHINSON 


9 


Go  thy  ways,  thou  daring  Cotton ; Cambridge  asks  no  word  of  thine ; 
Sunk  in  learned  ease  compliant,  well  content  with  Rimmon’s  shrine; 
Leave  thy  Gothic  halls  by  Granta,  leave  St.  Botolph’s  lofty  tower; 
Set  those  names  across  the  ocean,  there  where  Laud  hath  lost  his  power; 
And  thy  faithful  word  forever  finds  at  length  its  due  applause 
In  the  hum  of  freeborn  millions,  ruled  by  Boston’s  gentle  laws.” 

The  university  being  closed  to  him,  Mr.  Cotton  entered 
upon  his  twenty  years’  pastorate  at  St.  Botolph’s,  and 
then  followed  his  flight  to  New  England, 

“To  be  a burning  and  a shining  light 
Here  in  the  wilderness,” 

as  Longfellow  says  of  him  in  his  New  England  Tragedies. 

A much  earlier  poet  than  Longfellow,  viz:  the  Rev. 
Benjamin  Woodbridge,  who  wrote  in  the  quaint  conceits 
and  figures  of  his  time,  is  quoted  in  Cotton  Mather’s 
Magnalia  as  drawing  this  picturesque  poetic  portrait  of 
Mr.  Cotton: 

“A  living,  breathing  Bible;  tables  where 
Both  covenants  at  large  engraven  were; 

Gospel  and  Law  in’s  heart  had  each  its  column, 

His  head  an  index  to  the  sacred  volume; 

His  very  name  a title-page;  and  next 
His  life  a commentary  on  the  text. 

O,  what  a monument  of  glorious  worth, 

When  in  the  new  edition  he  comes  forth, 

Without  erratas,  may  we  think  he’ll  be 
In  leaves  and  covers  of  eternity! 

A man  of  might  at  heavenly  eloquence, 

To  fix  the  ear,  and  charm  the  conscience; 

As  if  Apollos  were  revived  in  him, 

Or  he  had  learned  of  a seraphim; 

Rocks  rent  before  him,  blind  received  their  sight; 

Souls  levelled  to  the  dunghill,  stood  upright.” 


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MRS.  ANNE  HUTCHINSON 


It  is  little  wonder  that  his  coming  filled  the  colony 
with  exceeding  joy.  It  was  something  that  they  had 
earnestly  desired  and  prayed  for.  To  honor  him,  and 
perhaps  to  attract  him  to  these  shores,  they  had  given 
the  name  of  Boston  to  their  chief  town,  as  that  was  the 
name  of  the  town  in  the  mother  country  where  he  had 
exercised  his  great  gifts  for  the  glory  of  God,  and  in  the 
service  of  Puritanism.  To  Boston,  therefore,  he  came, 
and  was  the  chief  magnet  to  draw  Mrs.  Hutchinson 
thither  also.  For  she  had  enjoyed  his  ministrations  in 
her  English  home,  and  had  been  nurtured  by  them  in 
the  faith ; she  had  listened  to  his  sermons  and  had  been 
edified  by  them ; she  had  weighed  his  doctrine,  and  had 
found  it  to  be  exceeding  sound  and  of  great  spiritual 
efficacy;  she  had  held  communion  with  him  on  high 
religious  themes,  and  her  heart  was  drawn  to  him  as  a 
prophet  of  surpassing  grace  and  truth.  She  came  to 
the  new  world,  therefore,  that  she  might  continue  to 
enjoy  his  ministry,  which  promised  more  of  stimulus 
and  edification  to  her  spiritual  life  than  any  other  that 
she  knew.  Beyond  the  fact  that  she  rejoiced  in  the 
preaching  of  Mr.  Cotton  and  also  of  her  brother-in-law, 
Mr.  John  Wheelwright,  we  know  nothing  about  the  life 
of  Mrs.  Hutchinson  in  her  English  home,  except  that  she 
was  the  daughter  of  a non-conformist  minister,  a Rev. 
Mr.  Marbury.  She  was  a woman  in  middle  life  when  she 
arrived  in  Boston,  with  traits  of  character,  and  habits 
of  thought,  and  religious  opinions  fully  formed. 

Of  course  she  and  her  husband  made  speedy  applica- 
tion for  admission  to  membership  in  the  Boston  church, 
and  the  records  of  the  church  show  that  Mr.  Hutchinson 
was  received  on  the  26th  of  October.  Mrs.  Hutchinson’s 
admission  was  delayed  for  a week,  to  the  2nd  of  Novem- 
ber, in  order  to  give  the  authorities  opportunity  to  enquire 


MRS.  ANNE  HUTCHINSON 


11 


more  particularly  concerning  her  views.  For  during  the 
passage  she  had  talked  freely,  and  with  characteristic 
assurance,  upon  religious  themes,  and  had  produced 
something  of  a stir  among  the  passengers.  In  particular 
the  Rev.  Zechariah  Symmes,  who  was  subsequently 
pastor  Of  the  Charlestown  church,  had  engaged  in  dis- 
cussion with  her  and  had  probably  been  worsted  by  her 
quick  wit  and  nimble  tongue ; for  he  testified  in  her  trial 
that  whaTTie  took  notice  of  in  his  talk  with  her  on  the 
ship  “was  the  corruptness  and  narrowness  of  her  opin- 
ions.” That  sounds  a good  deal  like  the  remark  of  a 
man  vanquished  in  argument  and  unwilling  to  admit 
it.  At  all  events,  immediately  on  his  arrival  in  Boston 
he  gave  notice  to  the  Governor  and  the  Deputy  of  Mrs. 
Hutchinson’s  eccentricities  of  belief,  of  her  doctrinal 
speculations,  and  of  her  pretence  to  immediate  revela- 
tions. This  it  was  which  caused  the  ministers  and  elders 
to  delay  her  admission  to  the  church,  after  her  husband 
had  been  already  received,  and  this  it  was  which  gave 
rise  to  the  accusation  later  that  she  secured  admission 
to  the  church  by  concealing  or  dissembling  her  opinions. 

Once  admitted  to  the  church,  however,  and  established 
in  her  own  home,  she  quickly  commended  herself  to  the 
esteem  and  affection  of  the  community,  and  particularly 
of  the  women  of  the  community.  She  was  a woman, 
not  only  of  pronounced  religious  convictions,  but  of 
quick  human  sympathies;  and  she  was  as  capable  and 
efficient  in  her  neighborly  ministrations  as  she  was  warm- 
hearted. She  was  undoubtedly  masterful  in  her  bearing, 
but  it  was  that  restful  mastery  of  bearing  which  is  wel- 
come in  times  of  trouble  and  suffering.  In  the  chamber 
of  birth  and  of  death  alike  she  was  present  as  a helpful 
and  comforting  minister  to  the  physical  weakness  and 
the  spiritual  wants  of  her  sisters.  She  was  their  nurse, 


& OF  ILL  LIB. 


12 


MRS.  ANNE  HUTCHINSON 


their  confidante,  and  their  sympathetic  friend.  Im- 
pressed as  they  must  have  been  by  her  unusual  mental 
gifts  and  her  consecration,  they  were  no  less  drawn  to 
her  by  her  unselfish  and  tender  ministries,  and  by  her 
eagerness  and  her  ability  to  help  them  in  those  trying 
moments  when  help  is  most  sorely  needed.  It  is  cer- 
tainly to  be  regretted  that  there  is  no  extant  portrait  of 
Mrs.  Hutchinson,  and  none  of  the  persons  who  have 
written  so  freely  and  frankly  of  her  virtues  and  her 
errors,  have  left  any  hint  of  her  personal  appearance. 
It  is  perhaps  reasonable  to  infer,  therefore,  that  the 
influence  she  acquired  was  not  due  to  her  personal  charms, 
but  solely  to  her  intellectual  gifts,  her  fervent  religious 
character,  and  her  kindly  human  feelings,  joined  with  an 
unusual  capacity  for  practical  helpfulness.  Rev.  Thomas 
Welde,  one  of  the  authors  of  the  Bay  Psalm  Book,  the 
minister  of  Roxbury  and  always  an  unfriendly  critic 
of  Mrs.  Hutchinson,  describes  her  as  “a  woman  of  a 
haughty  and  fierce  carriage,  of  a nimble  wit  and  active 
spirit,  and  a very  voluble  tongue,  more  bold  th^n  a man, 
though  in  understanding  and  judgment  inferior  to  many 
women”,  but  he  feels  compelled  to  say  of  her,  in  another 
place,  that  she  was  “a  woman  very  helpful  in  the  time 
of  childbirth,  and  other  occasions  of  bodily  disease, 
and  well  furnished  with  means  for  those  purposes.” 

Upon  her  arrival  in  Boston,  Mrs.  Hutchinson  found 
that,  in  addition  to  the  frequent  public  religious  exercises 
at  which  both  men  and  women  were  present,  there  were 
certain  stated  meetings  of  the  brethren  for  religious  dis- 
course from  which  women  were  excluded.  At  these 
meetings  of  the  men  it  was  the  custom  to  review  and 
discuss  the  sermons  of  the  preceding  Sunday.  Those 
sermons,  no  doubt,  furnished  sufficient  material,  and,  to 
the  Puritan  mind,  sufficient  stimulus  for  such  discussion. 


MRS.  ANNE  HUTCHINSON 


13 


The  service,  of  which  the  sermon  was  the  central  and 
most  esteemed  feature,  was  expected  to  last  from  three 
to  five  hours.  Upon  the  pulpit  stood  an  hour-glass,  and 
as  the  service  went  on  it  was  the  duty  of  the  sexton  to 
go  up  hour  by  hour  and  turn  the  glass  over.  Governor 
Winthrop  speaks  incidentally  of  a sermon  preached  at 
Cambridge  by  the  saintly  Thomas  Hooker  when  he  was 
not  in  his  usual  health.  He  proceeded,  says  Winthrop, 
in  his  discourse  for  fifteen  minutes,  then  stopped  and 
rested  half  an  hour,  then  resumed  and  preached  for  two 
hours.  It  was  customary  for  nearly  every  one  to  carry 
his  note-book  to  church,  and  to  write  down  as  much  as 
he  could  of  the  discourse.  “The  sermon,”  says  Mr. 
Tyler,  “was  without  a competitor  in  the  eye  or  mind  of 
the  community.  It  was  the  central  and  commanding 
incident  in  their  lives;  the  one  stately  spectacle  for  all 
men  and  all  women  year  after  year ; the  grandest  matter 
of  anticipation  or  of  memory ; the  theme  for  hot  disputes 
on  which  all  New  England  would  take  sides,  and  which 
would  seem  sometimes  to  shake  the  world  to  its  centre.  _ 
The  meetings  of  the  men,  therefore,  for  criticism  and 
comment  and  dispute  upon  the  sermons  to  which  they 
had  last  listened  were  occasions  of  the  greatest  interest 
and  importance,  and  it  must  have  seemed  a special  hard- 
ship to  the  women  that  they  were  excluded  from  the 
benefits  and  the  excitements  of  them.  Mrs.  Hutchinson 
was  not  one  to  rest  quiet  under  such  a discrimination, 
and,  with  characteristic  promptness  she  instituted  a 
similar  meeting  for  her  own  sex.  These  meetings  at 
once  became  popular  and  drew  together  a large  number 
of  women,  to  whom,  under  the  ostensible  purpose  of 
repeating  and  discussing  the  last  delivered  sermon,  she 
expounded  her  cherished  religious  views,  and  compared 
the  teachings  of  the  various  ministers  of  the  colony. 


14 


MRS.  ANNE  HUTCHINSON 


As  she  had  come  to  Boston  mainly  to  enjoy  the  ministra- 
tions of  Mr.  Cotton,  it  was  natural  that  her  preference 
for  him,  and  her  strong  approval  of  his  preaching,  should 
be  emphasized  by  her.  As  a member  of  the  Boston 
church  she  could  not  listen  to  his  discourses  as  teacher 
without  listening  also  to  those  of  the  pastor,  Mr.  Wilson. 
But  of  Mr.  Wilson’s  sermons  she  did  not  approve;  and 
in  her  private  conversation  with  friends,  as  well  as  in  the 
more  formal  meetings  of  the  women,  she  did  not  hesi- 
tate to  disparage  and  condemn  his  doctrine.  Colleagues 
as  he  and  Mr.  Cotton  were  in  the  ministry  of  the  Boston 
Church,  and  both  of  them  held  in  affectionate  esteem 
and  veneration  by  their  parishioners,  the  keen  judgment 
j of  Mrs.  Hutchinson  detected  a radical  difference  of 
• religious  teaching  in  their  discourses,  a difference  which 
she  probably  exaggerated,  and  which  she  made  the  basis 
!of  a comparison  in  the  highest  degree  unfavorable  to 
Mr.  Wilson,  and  at  the  same  time  destructive  of  the  peace 
pf  the  church.  She  affirmed  that  Mr.  Wilson  preached 
, a covenant  of  works;  by  which  she  meant  that  he  laid 
great  stress  upon  the  outward  marks  of  a religious  life, 
such  as  dress,  deportment,  observance  of  times  and 
seasons,  adherence  to  forms  and  methods,— all  those 
external  signs  of  sanctity  and  of  separation  from  the 
world  upon  which  the  Puritan  mind  was  accustomed 
to  insist,  and  which  were  wont  to  be  regarded  as  an 
essential  and  satisfactory  evidence  of  inward  righteous- 
ness, and  of  justification  before  God. 

To  such  teaching  as  this  Mrs.  Hutchinson  was  openly 
and  vehemently  opposed.  She  held  it  to  be  the  substi- 
tution of  the  bondage  of  the  Law  for  the  freedom  of  the 
Gospel.  She  called  it  “legalism,’’  and  regarded  it  as 
hostile  to  both  the  spirit  and  the  teaching  of  Christianity. 
She  ceased  not  earnestly  to  dissuade  all  who  came  within 


MRS.  ANNE  HUTCHINSON 


15 


the  sphere  of  her  influence  against  trusting  to  an  outside 
righteousness,  to  the  tokens  of  piety  set  forth  in  deeds 
and  virtues.  This  was  what  she  called  a “covenant  of 
works,”  and  in  opposition  to  it  she  urged  an  entire  reliance 
upon  the  “covenant  of  grace,”  the  free  and  peisonal 
witness  of  the  Spirit,  communicated  from  Christ  to  the 
heart  of  the  believer.  She  maintained  that  the  conscious- 
ness of  union  with  the  Holy  Spirit,  and  a prevailing  pur- 
pose of  righteousness,  would  secure  to  the  spirit  of  the 
believer  a serenity  not  to  be  attained  by  the  formalisms 
of  piety.  And  it  was  such  a “covenant  of  grace,,  with 
its  freedom  from  austere  restraints,  its  trust  in  an  inward 
assurance,  and  its  reliance  upon  divine  grace  communi- 
cated immediately  to  the  heart it  was  such  a covenant 
of  grace,  so  she  maintained,  that  Mr.  Cotton  preached. 
Accordingly  she  lost  no  opportunity  to  commend  his 
sermons,  and  to  disparage  those  of  Mr.  Wilson ; and  prob- 
ably both  the  commendation  and  the  disparagement 
were  thorough-going  and  emphatic,  and  were  made  moie 
intense  -by  an  infusion  of  personal  partisanship  to  which 
human  nature  is  ever  liable,  and  perhaps  feminine  human 
nature  particularly  so.  Such  speculations  or  convictions 
might  be  expressed,  and  even  with  unction,  in  these  daj-  s, 
without  disturbing  the  relations  between  friends,,  or 
imperilling  the  peace  of  churches,  and  certainly  with- 
out threatening  disaster  to  society  and  government.  But 
our  conditions  are  not  those  of  the  Puritan  colony.  lhe 
distinction  between  the  two  covenants  was  vital  in  the 
view  of  Mrs.  Hutchinson,  and  the  moment  the  distinction 
is  stated  we  instinctively  perceive  that  it  could  not  fail 
to  bring  into  discredit  the  formal  and  methodical  observ- 
ances of  the  scrupulous  forefathers  of  New  England. 
The  outward  manifestations  of  piety  were  then  much 
regarded  and  stringently  enforced ; perhaps  their  impor- 


16 


MRS.  ANNE  HUTCHINSON 


tance  was  exaggerated ; they  were  certainly  open  to  the 
charge  of  too  much  resembling  display ; for  not  only  was 
a grave  and  reverent  bearing  expected,  but  austerity 
in  looks,  and  sanctimoniousness  in  dress  and  phrase, 
were  considered  all  essential.” 

Obnoxious  as  Mrs.  Hutchinson’s  doctrines  came  to 
be,  and  necessarily  obnoxious,  she  had  been  in  New 
England  two  years  before  they  excited  special  attention. 
It  was  not  till  October  1636,  when  for  two  years  she  had 
been  doing  her  deeds  of  kindness,  and  holding  her  weekly 
meetings,  and  exercising  her  gifts  of  exposition  and 
exhortation,  and  sowing  seeds  of  dissension, — that 
Winthrop  mentions  Mrs.  Hutchinson  in  these  terms: 

“One  Mrs.  Hutchinson,  a member  of  the  church  of 
Boston,  a woman  of  a ready  wit  and  bold  spirit,  brought 
over  with  her  two  dangerous  errors : 1 . That  the  person 
of  the  Holy  Ghost  dwells  in  a justified  person:  2.  That 
no  sanctification  (by  which  he  means  no  outward  holiness 
of  life),  can  help  to  evidence  to  us  our  justification.  ” 
“From  these  two,”  he  continues,  “grew  many  branches, 
as  (1)  our  union  with  the  Holy  Ghost,  so  as  a Christian 
remains  dead  to  every  spiritual  action,  and  hath  no 
gifts  nor  graces  other  than  such  as  are  in  hypocrites,  nor 
any  other  sanctification  but  the  Holy  Ghost  himself.” 
Then  he  adds  that  “there  joined  with  her  in  these  opinions 
a brother  of  hers,  one  Mr.  Wheelwright,  a silenced  min- 
ister, sometimes  in  England.”  This  Mr.  Wheelwright 
had  but  recently  come  over  to  Boston  when  Winthrop 
wrote  these  words,  and  his  coming  served  to  precipitate 
the  strife  which  could  not  long  be  delayed.  Fie  became 
a public  expounder  of  the  views  which  Mrs.  Hutchinson 
held,  and  was,  equally  with  Mr.  Cotton,  the  subject  of 
her  commendation,  and  of  invidious  comparison  with  the 
other  ministers  of  the  colony.  An  earlier -arrival  than 


MRS.  ANNE  HUTCHINSON 


17 


Mr.  Wheelwright’s,  in  Boston,  was  that  of  Mr.  Henry 
Vane,  the  son  of  Sir  Henry  Vane,  the  King’s  comptroller. 
He  was  heartily,  and  even  enthusiastically  welcomed  by 
the  colonists,  who  were  filled  with  pride  and  hope  in  hav- 
ing among  them  the  son  and  heir  of  a privy-councillor. 
Accordingly,  setting  aside  from  the  chief  magistracy 
the  wise  and  moderate  Winthrop,  Henry  Vane  was 
elected,  in  1636,  Governor,  “after  so  brief  a sojourn  as 
made  it  impossible  that  he  should  know  the  spirit  and 
the  position  of  those  over  whom,  in  all  his  immaturity  of 
judgment,  he  was  placed,  by  a haste  and  zeal  which  were 
not  wise  to  say  the  least.”  Not  only  was  he  thus  elected 
to  the  highest  office,  but  the  honor  was  accompanied  by 
unusual  demonstrations  of  popular  interest,  and  by  the 
discharge  of  volleys  from  all  the  ships  in  the  bay.  The 
difficulties  that  ensued  were  aggravated  by  this  hasty 
measure;  for  Vane  joined  Mrs.  Hutchinson,  and  his  fall 
was,  in  a manner,  identified  with  hers. 

Such  was  the  state  of  things,  when  public  and  anxious 
attention  was  drawn  to  Mrs.  Hutchinson.  The  discovery, 
says  Dr.  Ellis,  was  like  the  discovery  of  a conflagration 
which  was  kindled  at  night,  and  behind  a wall.  Peace 
had  reigned  long  enough  to  allow  the  leaven  to  work  its 
way;  and  when  the  eyes  of  magistrates  and  ministers 
were  opened,  they  saw  at  once  the  whole  evil,  which  was 
then  past  their  power  to  redress,  though  they  set  about  it 
with  all  their  zeal.  All  sorts  of  persons  were  found  to 
have  been  attracted  by  her  spells,  and  involved  in  her 
tenets.  Cotton  and  Wheelwright  among  the  ministers; 
Vane,  the  Governor,  with  such  influential  men  as  Dummer 
and  Coddington  among  the  magistrates;  many  of  the 
deputies  of  the  towns  who  had  frequented  Boston,  with 
large  numbers  of  the  military  and  the  yeomanry,  were 
her  abettors  or  disciples.  “The  watchwords  of  the  new 


18 


MRS.  ANNE  HUTCHINSON 


party  were  heard  at  town-meetings,  at  trainings,  in  public 
worship,  in  family  prayers,  in  the  blessing  before  meat, 
and  in  the  grace  after  meat.  Children  asked  each 
other  whether  their  parents  stood  for  the  covenant  of 
grace  or  for  the  covenant  of  works.’ ’ 

“It  came  about,”  says  Rev.  Thos.  Welde  in  his  Short 
Story  of  the  Rise,  Reign  and  Ruin  of  the  Antinomians, 
— “that  those  errors  were  so  soon  conveyed  before  we 
were  aware,  not  only  into  the  church  of  Boston,  where 
most  of  these  seducers  lived,  but  also  into  almost  all  the 
parts  of  the  country  round  about.  These  opinions 
being  thus  spread,  and  grown  to  their  full  ripeness  and 
latitude,  through  the  nimbleness  and  activity  of  their 
fomenters,  began  now  to  lift  up  their  heads  full  high, 
to  stare  us.  in  the  face,  and  to  confront  all  that  opposed 
them.”  {‘Now,”  he  exclaims,  “oh  their  boldness,  pride, 
insolency,  jalienation  from  their  old  and  dearest  friends, 
the  disturbances,  divisions,  contentions  they  raised 
among  us,  both  in  church  and  state,  and  in  families, 
setting  division  betwixt  husband  and  wife!}  Oh,  the' 
sore  censure  against  all  sorts  that  opposed  them,  and  the 
contempt  they  cast  upon  our  godly  magistrates,  churches/ 
ministers,  and  all  that  were  set  over  them,  when  they 
stood  in  their  way ! 

“Now  the  faithful  ministers  of  Christ  must  have  dung 
cast  on  their  faces,  and  be  no  better  than  legal  preachers, 
Baal’s  priests,  popish  factors,  scribes,  Pharisees,  and 
opposers  of  Christ  himself!” 

And,  indeed,  there  was  much  reason  for  Mr.  Welde’s 
book  of  lamentations.  “The  ministers  in  the  colony  were 
classified,  and  what  had  formerly  been  approved  as 
most  signal  marks  of  piety  were  now  looked  upon  as  the 
mark  of  Cain.  There  was  a wandering  of  church  mem- 
bers from  their  own  places  of  worship  on  the  Sabbath, 


MRS.  ANNE  HUTCHINSON 


19 


V 

either  because  their  own  preacher  did  not  edify,  or  because 
another  preacher  did  not.  Some  of  the  more  zealous 
turned  their  backs  and  left  the  meetings  when  preachers 
whom  they  did  not  wish  to  hear  stood  up  in  the  desk. 
Mrs.  Hutchinson  herself  set  an  example  for  this  offensive 
proceeding  by  leaving  the  meeting-house  when  the 
pastor  Wilson  was  to  preach.” 

“Now* wails  Mr.  Welde,  “you  might  have  seen  many 
of  the  opinionists  rising  up,  and  contemptuously  turning 
their  backs  upon  the  faithful  pastors  of  that  church, 
and  going  forth  from  the  assembly  when  he  began  to 
pray  or  preach.  Now  you  might  have  read  epistles  of 
defiance  and  challenge,  written  to  some  ministers  after 
their  sermons,  to  cross  and  contradict  truths  by  them 
delivered,  and  to  maintain  their  own  way.  It  was  a 
wonder  of  mercy  that  they  had  not  set  our  Commonwealth 
and  churches  on  a fire,  and  consumed  us  all  therein.” 

Such  were  the  elements  of  discord  in  Boston,  elements 
that  could  hardly  fail  to  breed  strife  in  any  community 
at  any  time.  The  opinions  and  practices  of  Mrs.  Hutchin- 
son and  her  partisans  were  offensive  in  themselves,  and 
equally  offensive  in  the  manner  of  their  exhibition. 
Before  any  public  notice  was  taken  of  her,  and  long  before 
any  harsh  measures  were  adopted  against  her  party, 
the  disturbing  and  mortifying  and  estranging  effects  to 
which  I have  referred  had  been  brought  about.  If  there 
had  been  no  public  proceedings  against  Mrs.  Hutchinson 
and  her  friends  the  colony  would  still  have  suffered  a 
dangerous  conflict  and  division.  These  deplorable  results 
cannot,  therefore,  be  justly  charged  upon  the  interference 
or  the  severity  of  the  public  authorities.  It.  must  be 
remembered,  too,  that  from  the  beginning  of  the  contro- 
versy its  political  bearings  and  its  seditious  tendencies 
were  foreseen.  Church  and  state  were  in  a peculiar 


20 


MRS.  ANNE  HUTCHINSON 


sense  one  in  the  Massachusetts  colony,  and  the  authori- 
ties were  in  constant  dread  lest  they  should  lose  thei 
charter,  the  surrender  of  which  was  repeatedly  anc 
imperiously  demanded  of  them.  Nothing  so  much 
endangered  their  possession  of  the  charter  as  reports  o 
disorderly  proceedings  in  the  colony,  and  nothing  hac 
provoked  so  much  disorder  as  the  course  of  Mrs.  Hutchin 
son  and  her  followers.  To  quell  the  disorder,  therefore 
and  to  suppress  the  mischievous  party  was,  in  thei: 
view,  as  much  a political  as  a religious  duty.  Besidi 
they  had  reason  to  fear  that  the  doctrine  euphemistically 
preached  as  the  covenant  of  grace  might  turn  out  with 
them  as  it  had  turned  out  in  the  old  world,  where  the 
substitution  of  inward  assurance  for  conformity  to  th< 
law,  under  the  name  of  antinomianism,  had  been  fol 
lowed  by  moral  lapses  and  scandals  of  a most  distressing 
character.  They  had  reason,  I say,  to  fear  this  result 
of  the  doctrine  in  Massachusetts,  though  it  is  but  just 
to  say  that  thfere  was  only  one  instance  of  such  a perver- 
sion of  the  doctrine  in  the  colony, — only  one  instance, 
at  least,  that  is  a matter  of  historical  record.  That  was 
the  case  of  the  famous  Captain  Underhill,  a doughty 
Indian  fighter,  who,  when  he  was  put  on  trial  for  his 
immoralities,  affirmed  that  “he  had  lain  under  a spirit 
of  bondage  and  a legal  way  five  years,  and  could  get  no 
assurance  (of  his  being  justified)  till  at  length,  as  he  was 
taking  a pipe  of  tobacco,  the  Spirit  sent  home  an  absolute 
promise  of  free  grace  with  such  assurance  and  joy,  as  he 
never  since  doubted  of  his  good  estate,  neither  should  he, 
though  he  should  fall  into  sin,”  — a condition  that  was 
fulfilled  in  his  subsequent  experience. 

The  continued  political  existence,  and  the  moral 
health,  of  the  colony,  therefore,  both  demanded  that  the 
combined  power  of  the  magistrates  and  the  ministers 


MRS.  ANNE  HUTCHINSON 


21 


should  be  exerted  to  the  utmost  to  put  an  end  to  the 
most  perilous  condition  of  affairs  that  Massachusetts 
has  ever  known.  This  necessity  was  additionally  empha- 
sized, I should  think,  by  an  incident  in  the  military  admin- 
istration of  the  colony.  The  Pequot  Indians  had  become 
very  aggressive  and  dangef ous^  ~lm3  it 11  was  thought 
necessary  to  send  a considerable  force  against  them.  But 
the  levy  of  Boston  troops  refused  to  be  mustered  into  the 
service  because  the  chaplain,  who  had  been  chosen  by 
lot  to  accompany  the  forces,  was  Mr.  Wilson,  and  he  was 
committed,  in  his  preaching,  to  a covenant  of  works. 

If  military  operations  were  liable  to  be  blocked  by  theo- 
logical fastidiousness  on  the  part  of  the  soldiery,  while 
a cruel  and  savage  foe  was  lying  in  wait  to  scalp  impar- 
tially the  adherents  of  both  covenants,  there  was  but  a 
gloomy  prospect  for  the  future  of  the  colony. 

Every  consideration,  therefore,  of  domestic  peace, 
of  public  morality,  and  of  secure  political  existence, 
seemed  to  demand  immediate  and  vigorous  action  against 
the  Hutchinson  party.  Governor  Winthrop  continued 
to  stand  firm  against  the  suspicious  and  disturbing  doc- 
trines, and  he  .was  himself  a tower  of  strength.  He  is 
justly  characterized  by  Dr.  Geo.  E.  Ellis  as  the  wisest, 
most  faithful  counsellor,  fosterer  and  ever  loyal  friend 
of  the  colony,  the  sincerest,  purest  spirit  of  the  Puritan 
Theocracy.  With  him  were  associated,  in  determined 
opposition  to  Mrs.  Hutchinson  and  her  followers,  Deputy- 
Governor  Dudley,  the  Rev.  John  Wilson  of  the  Boston 
church,  and  all  the  ministers  of  the  neighboring  towns, 
including  Mr.  Shepard  of  Cambridge,  Mr.  Welde  of  Rox- 
bury,  Mr.  Symmes  of  Charlestown,  Mr.  Hugfit  Peter  of  * 
Salem,  and  Mr.  Philips  of  Watertown;  of  all  these 
ministers  Mrs.  Hutchinson  had  said  repeatedly  that 
they  were  not  “sealed,”  and  were  not  “able  ministers 


22 


MRS.  ANNE  HUTCHINSON 


of  the  New  Testament,” — an  expression  of  opinion 
which  was  not  likely  to  conciliate  them  to  her  doctrines. 
Mr.  Philips  of  Watertown  regarded  it  as  peculiarly  un- 
reasonable in  her  to  include  him  in  this  general  condemna- 
tion, because  she  had  never  heard  him  preach  at  all. 
Besides  these  ministers  the  majority  of  the  deputies  to 
the  General  Court  from  the  towns  outside  of  Boston  were 
unfriendly  to  the  Hutchinson  party.  That  party,  on 
the  other  hand,  consisted  of  Mrs.  Hutchinson,  its  moving 
spirit,  Mr.  Cotton  and  nearly  all  the  membership  of  the 
Boston  church,  Rev.  Mr.  Wheelwright  of  the  Mount 
Wollaston  church  and  some  of  his  people,  and  the  entire 
body  of  Boston  deputies  and  elders.  Governor  Vane 
was  also  a strong  adherent  of  the  party,  but  he  returned  to 
England  while  the  conflict  was  in  its  earlier  stages. 

I must  not  attempt  to  detail  the  successive  steps 
that  led  up  to  the  trial  of  Mrs.  Hutchinson.  There  were 
conferences  of  the  ministers,  public  fast-days,  and  an 
imposing  synod  at  Cambridge.  Mr.  Wheelwright  was 
censured,  and  afterwards  banished,  for  an  alleged  sedi- 
tious sermon  on  a fast-day.  Many  members  of  the 
Boston  church  who  signed  a remonstrance  against  the 
action  touching  Mr.  Wheelwright,  were  deprived  of  their 
arms  and  ammunition  — an  inconvenient  and  humili- 
ating punishment  — and  a number  of  the  more  incorrig- 
ible remonstrants  were  banished  from  the  colony.  Mr. 
Cotton  was  examined  as  to  his  tenets  and  his  teaching, 
and  was  able  to  give  such  an  explanation  of  his  position 
as  to  put  him  outside  the  Hutchinson  party,  and  to  retain 
his  unquestioned  standing  in  the  community  and  the 
church.  And  at  last  came  the  trial  of  Mrs.  Hutchinson 
herself  before  the  Great  Court  of  Massachusetts.  She 
could  not  be  left  to  the  judgment  of  the  Boston  church 
of  which  she  was  a member,  because  the  church  itself 


MRS.  ANNE  HUTCHINSON 


23 


had  gone  astray,  and  was  in  open  sympathy  with  this 
accused  woman.  Indeed  the  church  itself  was  to  be 
censured  through  the  penalties  inflicted  upon  her  and 
others  of  its  members;  and  the  combined  authority  of 
the  towns  around  Boston,  with  their  ministers,  was 
brought  to  bear  against  the  heretical  and  seditious  church 
of  the  metropolis. 

It  was  in  November,  1637,  that  the  trial  took  place, 
the  General  Court  then  sitting  at  Cambridge.  It  was  an 
impressive  and  pitiful  spectacle.  With  all  New  England 
looking  on,  the  combined  powers  of  the  government 
and  the  church  were  directed  with  hostile  intent  and 
manner  against  one  poor  woman  of  unimpeachable  per- 
sonal character.  The  Governor,  the  Deputy-Governor, 
the  magistrates  and  the  deputies  were  present.  All  the 
ministers  of  the  colony  were  there,  smarting  under  the 
reproaches  which  Mrs.  Hutchinson  had  spoken  against 
them,  and  determined  to  insure  her  humiliation.  Besides 
these  the  building  was  thronged  with  friendly  and 
unfriendly  spectators.  And  when  Anne  Hutchinson 
stood  up  to  meet  the  charges  that  were  brought  against 
her,  the  spectators  saw  a woman  enfeebled  in  body  and 
depressed  in  mind,  but  invincible  in  spirit  as  she  faced 
the  accusers,  and  stood  on  her  defence  before  the  as- 
sembled wisdom,  and  authority,  and  sanctity  of  Massa- 
chusetts colony.  There  were  some  features  of  special 
hardship  too,  which  it  is  not  pleasant  to  remember.  No 
counsel  was  allowed  her,  nor  the  presence  of  any  support- 
ing friend;  and  she  was  compelled  to  stand  until  she 
nearly  fell  from  exhaustion. 

Governor  Winthrop,  by  virtue  of  his  office,  conducted 
the  prosecution,  though  the  examination  passed  some- 
what out  of  his  hands  as  the  trial  progressed.  A (fairly) 
full  report  of  the  trial,  by  an  unknown  hand,  may  be 


24 


MRS.  ANNE  HUTCHINSON 


read  in  an  appendix  to  the  History  of  Massachusetts 
by  Thos.  Hutchinson,  a great-grandson  of  Anne,  who  in 
his  impartial  and  judicious  account  of  the  controversy 
is  far  from  espousing  with  ardor  the  cause  of  his  famous 
ancestress.  It  appears  from  that  report  that  various 
specific  charges  were  brought  against  her,  such  as  holding 
unlawful  meetings  at  her  house,  supporting  those  who 
were  under  censure  of  the  court  (meaning  Mr.  Wheel- 
wright and  the  Boston  remonstrants),  defaming  the 
ministers  of  the  colony,  and  promulgating  opinions 
disturbing  to  the  peace  of  the  commonwealth.  Against 
these  charges  Mrs.  Hutchinson  defended  herself  with  a 
clearness  and  skill  and  self-reliance  that  compel  our  ad- 
miration. She  was  neither  abashed  nor  outwitted,  though 
she  was  surrounded  by  the  venerated  symbols  of  author- 
ity, and  was  hard  pressed  by  the  keenest  intellects  and 
the  most  practiced  disputants  of  the  colony,  and  was 
herself  weary  and  worn  by  the  various  phases  of  the 
conflict  through  which  she  had  already  passed. 

Deputy-Governor  Dudley,  the  father  of  the  gentle 
poetessf^ASeJB r adstreetr  impatient  at  the  slow  progress 
of  the  prosecution  by  the  discussion  of  specific  charges, 
made  this  general  statement  of  the  case  against  her: 
“About  three  years  ago  we  were  all  in  peace.  Mrs. 
Hiitchmson,  from  that  time  she  came,  hath  made  a dis- 
turbance, and  some  that  came  over  with  her  in  the 
ship,  did  inform  me  wThat  she  was  as  soon  as  she  was 
landed.  I being  then  in  place  dealt  with  the  pastor 
and  teacher  of  Boston,  and  desired  them  to  inquire  of 
her,  and  then  I was  satisfied  that  she  held  nothing  differ- 
ent from  us ; but  within  half  a year  after  she  had  vented 
divers  of  her  strange  opinions,  and  had  made  parties  in 
the  country,  and  at  length  it  comes  that  Mr.  Cotton  and 
Mr.  Vane  were  of  her  judgment;  but  Mr.  Cotton  hath 


MRS.  ANNE  HUTCHINSON 


25 


cleared  himself  that  he  was  not  of  that  mind;  but  now 
it  appears  by  this  woman’s  meeting  that  Mrs.  Hutchinson 
hath  so  forestalled  the  minds  of  many  by  their  resort 
to  her  meeting  that  now  she  hath  a potent  party  in  the 
country.  Now,  if  all  these  things  have  endangered  us 
as  from  that  foundation,  and  if  she  in  particular  hath 
disparaged  all  our  ministers  in  the  land  that  they  have 
preached  a covenant  of  works,  and  only  Mr.  Cotton  a 
covenant  of  grace,  why  this  is  not  to  be  suffered,  and 
therefore  being  driven  to  the  foundation,  and  it  being 
found  that  Mrs.  Hutchinson  is  she  that  hath  depraved  all 
the  ministers  and  hath  been  the  cause'oTwbat  has  fallen 
out,  why  we  must  take  away  the  foundation  and  the 
building  will  fall.” 

This  view  of  the  case — as  to  the  removal  of  the 
foundation — prevailed,  and  particularly  after  Mrs. 
Hutchinson  had  furnished  the  most  serious  and  conclu- 
sive evidence  herself  by  claiming  “ special  revelations  ” 
as  the  justification  of  all  that  she  had  done.  Accordingly 
the  sentence  of  the  court,  as  it  stands  upon  the  records 
of  Massachusetts,  was  as  follows: 

“Mrs.  Hutchinson,  the  wife  of  Mr.  Wm.  Hutchinson, 
being  convicted  for  traducing  the  ministers  and  their 
ministry  in  the  country,  she  declared  voluntarily  her 
revelations  for  the  ground,  and  that  she  should  be  deliv- 
ered, and  the  court  ruined  with  their  posterity,  and 
thereupon  was  banished  and  in  the  meanwhile  was 
committed  to  Mr.  Joseph  Welde  (of  Roxbury)  until  the 
court  shall  dispose  of  her.” 

The  Mr.  Joseph  Welde  to  whose  care  she  was  com- 
mitted, in  order  that  her  banishment  might  not  be  in 
the  winter,  was  a brother  of  the  minister  who  was  one 
of  her  bitterest  enemies.  She  was  to  be  treated  with 
kindness  at  his  house,  at  the  expense  of  her  husband; 


26 


MRS.  ANNE  HUTCHINSON 


but  only  her  particular  friends  and  the  elders  were  to  be 
admitted  to  her,  “lest  the  eloquence  of  persecution 
should  double  the  power  and  the  mischief  of  her  gifts.” 

In  the  following  March,  after  a winter's  imprison- 
ment, made  doubly  irksome  by  the  repeated  examina- 
tions and  conferences  and  exhortations  of  the  elders  in 
the  effort  to  subdue  her  to  their  own  way  of  thinking, 
she  was  brought  before  the  Boston  church  to  answer 
to  the  charge  of  heresy  in  doctrine.  It  is  true  that  she 
was  not  convicted,  but  neither  was  she  converted,  and 
therefore  the  church  voted  that  she  should  be  solemnly 
admonished.  The  duty  of  pronouncing  the  admonition 
was  laid  upon  Mjv-Gotton.  It  is  recorded  that  “he  laid 
I her  sin  to  her  conscience  with  much  zeal  and  solemnity; 
/ he  admonished  her  also  of  the  height  of  her  spirit  ; then 
/ he  spoke  to  the  sisters  of  the  church,  and  advised  them 
I to  take  heed  of  her  opinions,  and  to  withhold  all  counte- 
* nance  and  respect  from  her,  lest  they  should  harden  her 
in  her  sin.”  And  these  words  she  was  compelled  to  hear 
from  the  minister  whom  she  had  followed  in  love  and 
reverence  to  New  England,  and  who  had  been  to  her  a 
special  prophet  of  grace  and  truth.  But  her  trials  were 
not  yet  over.  A week  later  she  was  again  brought 
before  the  church,  and  because  she  persistently  denied 
having  expressed  or  held  an  offensive  opinion  which  was 
imputed  to  her,  she  was  condemned  for  falsehood,  and 
was  excommunicated  from  the  church.  The  venerable 
records  of  the  First  Church  in  Boston  contain  this  entry : 
“The  22nd  of  March,  1638,  Anne,  the  wife  of  our  brother, 
William  Hutchinson,  having  on  the  15th  of  this  month 
been  openly,  in  the  public  congregation,  admonished  of 
sundry  errors  held  by  her,  was  on  the  same  22nd  day  cast 
out  of  the  church,  for  impenitently  persisting  in  a mani- 
fest lie  then  expressed  by  her  in  open  congregation.” 


MRS.  ANNE  HUTCHINSON 


27 


Thus  excommunicated  from  the  church,  and  ban- 
ished from  the  colony,  she  went  with  her  husband  to 
Rhode  Island,  whither  we  cannot  follow  her,  further 
than  to  say  that,  on  the  death  of  her  husband  four  years 
later,  she  removed  with  her  younger  children  to  the 
Dutch  settlement  in  New  York,  and  became  one  of  a 
little  colony  of  sixteen  persons.  The  Indians  were  then 
in  open  hostility  with  the  Dutch,  in  pillage,  burning,  and 
massacre.  In  one  of  their  raids,  in  1643,  the  whole  of 
this  little  colony  of  sixteen  suffered  the  tragic  fate  of  a 
savage  massacre.  The  Indian  custom  of  preserving  the 
names  of  those  they  killed  has  made  us  know  that  Wam- 
pago  himself,  the  owner  of  the  land  upon  which  the 
colony  was  settled,  was  the  murderer  of  the  woman 
whose  life  was  so  strange  a mixture  of  consecration  and 
conflict,  of  kindliness  and  contention,  of  happiness  and 
suffering. 

Necessary  as  her  persecution  and  banishment  may 
have  been  to  the  safety  of  Massachusetts  colony,  she  yet 
cherished  and  taught  an  ideal  of  Christianity  more  perma- 
nent than  that  of  the  stern  Puritans  who  cast  her  out 
from  their  presence,  and  who  verily  believed  that  by 
that  act  they  were  doing  God  service. 


\ 


